The Hunting
by Kat1987
Summary: Set 300 years after Breaking Dawn, the world is a much different place for the Cullens. Please R
1. Chapter 1: 300 Years Later

**_I started writing this as a stress break from school, and because I couldn't get into the heads of my other characters in A Chance Encounter -- SO I bring you this. Set 300 years after Breaking Dawn the world is a different place. This story will change POVs and each chapter will have the heading of which POV you are reading. I got this idea from what else? A dream...and I thought to expand it. NO I am not Stephenie Meyers, No I am not making any profit from this... Enjoy._**

Bella POV

We sat together in a dark cave and despite the lack of light our vampire eyes helped us to see each other perfectly. Edward sat to my left his arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders; Carlisle and Esme sat across from us against the cave wall; Emmett and Jasper sat close to the opening of the cave keeping a look out; Alice sat to my right massaging her temples; Rosalie sat perfectly still on Edwards left staring at Emmett.

We had only been in the cave for one minute and Alice finally huffed and removed her hands from her head.

"We're safe for the night, I can't see anything bad happening," she said whispering to Carlisle.

He nodded, and whispered to Emmett and Jasper that only one of them needed to keep guard for the moment; Emmett quickly took his spot next to Rosalie. Edward loosened his grip, but only slightly. I stretched my elastic band to surround him and thought, "I want to be alone for the moment; please let me go."

I saw him frown, but he silently removed his arm. I retracted the elastic band, raised silently and walked farther into the cave. When I could no longer see my family, I sat down against the wall and leaned back. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and sighed.

The last 300 hundred years of my life flashed before my eyes; every moment in perfect detail, like it only happened yesterday. It was this quality of being a vampire that I hated; especially now.

The image of Charlie's funeral from 250 years ago became the forefront of my memories. We couldn't actually attend the funeral up close since I was supposed to be 68 years old and I didn't look a day over 18. But the advantage of my eye sight let me see all of the details; Charlie's gray wrinkled sunken face haunted me. What hurt the most was being unable to console Sue, who had been my step-mother for forty years.

She of course knew that we are all vampires, but she also knew she could never tell anyone. Leah and Seth were with her but I felt that _I_ needed to be there too. After the Forks community left the cemetery, I was able to visit his grave site; I left a single rose atop of his headstone which read: _Dedicated Police Chief, Wonderful Husband, Loving Father and Grandfather_ on the back, the front, _Charles "Charlie" Swan 1964-2056 aged 92 years._ I traced my finger along the marble and sighed...

"Love, are you alright?" whispered Edward.

I quickly opened my eyes and looked around but I didn't see him; he must have called out to me from where he sat. I didn't respond, but simply breathed out heavily. I took another breath and closed my eyes again hoping to see Charlie's headstone again, when instead another memory surfaced; the distraught face of Nessie from only fifty years ago.

I flinched at seeing her perfect face twisted in pain and the sound of her gagging rang in my ears. I forced my eyes open and Edward sat in front of me, his onyx colored eyes staring straight into mine.

"Bella, what's wrong dear?" he asked in his velvet voice, again a whisper.

I stretched my arms out around his neck and pulled myself into him. I pressed my face into his chest and enveloped the both of us into the safety of my shield. _Nessie_, I thought to him, and he wrapped his arms quickly and tightly around me.

If I could have cried, I would have been balling; instead I simply felt the sobs of a vampire cry rolling through my body, as Edward and I sat holding each other.

**_I know a cliff hanger, but I want to know if there is any interest in this. If there is please review and let me know how you like the story and I'll continue it when I can. I want to give a shout out to the people at the Twilight Lexicon website because if it wasn't for their timeline and character bios, Charlie's birthday and age would have been all wrong. _**


	2. Chapter 2

_Here is the next POV...Hope you like it! Please review, and let me know what you think of this so far! Stephenie Meyer (not Meyers like I put in the other chapter) owns all things Twilight related...this is just a fun stress reliever and a great imagination stretcher! ~Enjoy!~_

Edward POV

Alice's visions flashed through my mind as they did hers. I was happy to notice that there were no signs of any danger for the morning, but I was still not ready to let my guard down.

When it was confirmed that staying in the cave for the day was the safest thing I slightly released my grip on Bella's body. Through Jasper's thoughts I could see the beginnings of dawn, but then suddenly I could no longer hear anyone else's thoughts.

"I want to be alone for the moment; please let me go," came Bella's soft thought. I frowned; I knew it was not a good thing if she wanted to be alone, but I reluctantly let her go. I learned from our 300 years of marriage that what she wanted she needed, and despite the fact that she hadn't been human for three centuries I knew she still valued her "human moment" every now and then.

_Edward, I've been trying to find Jacob the last few days, but I haven't gotten a strong vision of him yet_ came Alice's thought once Bella was no longer with us.

I nodded. It was a lot to ask of Alice, to not only look out for our safety but to search for Jacob. Her power had grown and her connection to him strengthened since he was apart of the family since Nessie's birth, but now that all of us were on the run it was harder again for her.

_How are you and Bella holding up?_ thought Esme after I nodded to Alice's thought.

"As well as can be expected I would imagine," I whispered to her.

_We will find her Edward, we won't let another fifty years pass by_, she thought again.

Oh Esme and her optimism! If we hadn't found her when she was first taken how could we find her now? Especially since we are only safe in the night, and even then we have to run to find another place to hide out in during the day.

The attack that happened to our family fifty years ago was a sudden surprise. We had thought when Nessie was hit that it meant she was dead or going to die, but a few days later Alice got a vision of her, sickly looking, but alive.

_Son, you should probably go check on Bella, you know what happens when she is left alone for too long. We can't afford to have her outburst now that the sun is coming up,_ thought Carlisle.

I got up without a word and followed Bella's scent. I found her braced against the wall of the cave, her eyes closed and pain stretched across her face. I heard the beginnings of a scream and I rushed over to her. I gently touched her, she flinched and her eyes opened suddenly. Her onyx colored eyes reflected my pale worried face.

"Bella, what's wrong dear?" I asked in my comforting velvet whisper.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled herself into me and placed her face on my chest. I then could no longer hear the rest of my family, but I heard her quivering voice say _Nessie_ in my head. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her trying to keep her from screaming out in the saddened anger that has plagued her for the last fifty years. Then the last image of Nessie all of us had flashed before my eyes.

"Bella, please, stop," I whispered to her, "I need to hear everyone else right now."

She removed her shield and I felt some relief not having to see my daughters face twisted in my mind. I began to hum Bella's lullaby to calm both of us down.

"Alice told me that she is starting to get some images of Jacob," I lied, hoping that this information would ease her.

"Good, I hope he is getting close to finding Nessie. Oh how I wish we could be helping him!" she said keeping her face buried in my chest.

"Me too love; me too. But he is able to pass for being human better than us. It is safer for him to look,"

"Unless someone touches him, then they would know that he is not human and then he is in more trouble than us!" she said still muffled in my chest.

"I know, but try not to think about that now!"

I held her even closer. I'm not sure how long we sat holding each other but then I heard Carlisle's thoughts loud and clear, _Edward, it's your turn to keep watch at the mouth of the cave_.

He soon came to where Bella and I were sitting. "Bella, I have to keep guard now. Carlisle is here to sit with you." I kissed the top of her head and then released her. She slowly removed her arms and then just let them fall. I stood and made my way to the opening of the cave to protect my family.


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm glad to know that many of you like the story so far! I hope the changing of POV's isn't irritating, but each one tells a different part of the story. This story is for fun, no profit is being made, all credit of the original story goes to Stephenie Meyer (thanks for creating such interesting characters!) Anywho, ~Enjoy!~_

Carlisle POV

_I'll take care of her Edward, I promise_, I thought as Edward passed to take his turn as look-out. He simply frowned.

I sat down next to Bella and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. She leaned her head on my shoulder, curled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She was taking very deep breaths, obviously trying to calm herself down.

I knew it was useless to talk to her, but holding her helped to keep her from screaming out. We were all dealing with the loss of Nessie; we were all dealing with the changes in the world.

"Is this life worth it anymore?" she asked whispering. "When I chose immortal life, I didn't think that I would be choosing –this."

"Bella, none of us knew that worldwide war was going to break out and that our world would have been discovered because of it. But we will make it through, believe me with all I've seen, we _will_ make it through."

"But what about Nessie? What about her?!" she said now talking above a whisper. "We have no idea where she; if she's even still alive!"

"We can't give up hope though. Bella we have to believe that she is still alive and waiting for us."

"Waiting for us?! For what?! She is almost the same age Nahuel was when he died _naturally! _So we know that even though Nessie is a half-breed her human side _will_ cause her to die! The only question is if we can get her out before it's too late!"

"Nahuel died six years ago at the age of 450; Nessie is _only_ 300..."

"But she has been gone for fifty years already! What if it takes us another 150? – I _can't_ live without her anymore Carlisle! – I can't."

I squeezed her shoulder a little tighter, and she began to lightly rock back and forth. I sympathized with her, if anything happened to any member of my family now, I would certainly do anything in my power to get them back or avenge them in anyway. But because of our having to constantly split up to remain hidden, to change locations night after night spending weeks away from each other, it has made it hard to search for Nessie.

That's why we relied on Jacob; although his kind had been discovered too, he is the only one who can pull off being human. The only problem was we hadn't gotten any messages from him in the last few days, meaning he was either on the right track, or missing. It killed each and every one of us to be in hiding, to not be actively searching for Nessie, but if we got caught, it wouldn't help her at all either.

Emmett and Jasper then came where Bella and I were sitting, carrying open maps. They came over by us, and spread them along the floor.

"We think that we're around here" said Jasper pointing to a map of Argentina. "But we can't be sure exactly which city because of the destruction."

"We're trying to decide where to go next. We've been in South America for too long. I suggest we head to Europe or Russia," said Emmett pointing to both places on two other maps.

"Alice suggests we stay around North America because she thinks Jacob is still on this side of the world," said Jasper looking up at me; his eyes onyx.

"First thing first boys; we need to eat. Are there any animals around here?" I asked.

"We haven't smelled any yet," said Jasper frowning, "but there are people around."

"No! It's hard enough to keep the dead animals hidden, but even harder to hide people. And besides, we gave up on drinking human blood."

"We could all use a strength booster though," said Emmett gently nodding.

I shook my head; but Emmett made a good point. All of our eyes were as black as onyx and human blood did give us more strength than animal blood, and since we spent each night running, each day hiding, we would need all the strength we could get.

Alice came running to where we all sat, holding her hands to her head. "How _dare_ you think of such things!! We can't hunt the humans in this area; it would get the governments attention!"

"Then you tell us what to eat?!" said Emmett.

She closed her eyes and began to massage her temples. "A little help Bella?" she said.

Bella took her head off of my shoulder and stared at Alice.

_Edward, Bella is just helping Alice see. You'll hear her thoughts soon_ I thought in my head as loudly as I could so Edward would be able to hear them at the entrance of the cave.

It was amazing how much Bella's power had grown. By encasing Alice in her shield she helps clear up all of the blind spots. It only took Alice two seconds after being encased before she smiled and opened her eyes.

"I see each of us enjoying snake in possibly three hours," she said staring at Emmett.

"No grizzly?" he complained.

"Not here!" Alice rolled her eyes.

"That's not going to feed all of us though," said Jasper. "I have to say that Emmett's idea is a smart one; we need to bring our strength up,"

"We can't!" said Alice barely keeping her voice in a whisper.

"We have too," I said, "I hate to say it, but Emmett and Jasper are right. We haven't eaten in well over a month, each and every one of us has deep circles under our eyes. Alice I know you hate this idea, but I need you to try and find a few wandering humans for us."

She sighed, shook her head and closed her eyes. Three seconds later she opened her eyes and frowned. "There is a family of four hunting for food not to far from here. I don't see any Hunters out there, so we should be safe."

I nodded and all at once we all stood and made our way to the mouth of the cave. Edward, Esme and Rosalie were waiting for us, obviously they had heard the conversation.

"Each family pair gets _one_ human to share; Try to be clean about it; it needs to look like an animal attack, so try to leave some blood in the system," I said talking to each member of my family.

They all timidly nodded; we all hated the idea of having to kill innocent people for our strength, but it had to be done. Edward stood at the mouth and concentrated. He turned back to us pointed to the south west of the cave and nodded. We ran out of the cave and attacked the four humans.

**_So they broke their number one rule, not to eat humans...But it had to happen :( Please review; tell me your likes, and your dislikes so I can make the story better! Thanks!_**


	4. Chapter 4:Trap

_Here is the next Chapter/POV. Sorry it's been a while, I've been preparing for finals and writing this was such a welcomed break to having to think about school. Anywho, in response to some of the reviews, yes it is bad in the world that they had to break their number one rule of not drinking human blood. Both populations of humans and animals have dropped since the whole planet was/is involved with war; and they have to be careful about when and where they hunt. They only chose to drink the human blood because they know it can make them stronger and keep them fed longer...and you'll learn more about Nessie's fate later to come...but for now enjoy the next chapter!_

Alice POV

I know we were all trying not to think about what we were doing. The look on the face of the woman that Jasper and I took was now stuck in my perfect memory. I tried to push out the snarls and growls coming from the other members of the family; I knew Jasper was still trying to keep us within our senses.

Even though I was eating, I was still searching for the future. The Hunters somehow were able to block my ability, unless I had Bella's protection shield surrounding me all I saw was blackouts. I was looking for those blackouts now; the placement of the humans and their lack of fight seemed too perfect.

And then my vision went black. I froze and stopped drinking the blood. I noticed that Edward had also stopped, Carlisle and Esme stopped when they saw him. It took the others a little longer to stop, especially Bella since it was the first human blood she ever tasted as a vampire.

I quickly replayed the vision I had in the cave, and now without Bella's shield I saw the blackout creeping into the vision. _It's a trap!_ I thought and then screamed out to the family.

Carlisle looked at Edward, who then grabbed Bella's hand; they took off running to the north at the same time Carlisle said, "Running pattern Beta, meeting place Beta!"

Jasper grabbed my hand and we took off running to the east, while Emmett and Rosalie went west, and Carlisle and Esme followed behind Edward and Bella. It was safer to break up and run in different directions. The Hunters never traveled in large groups, so they would have to choose which pair to go after.

"Alice I'm sorry!" said Jasper while we ran.

"For what?" I asked keeping my eyes straight ahead looking for the shadows.

"For forcing you to convince the others to eat the humans. I can't believe I agreed with Emmett" I saw him frown as we sprinted.

"You forced _us_ to do nothing. We all agreed, and regardless if we hadn't and the Hunters came I don't think we would be able to run away this fast," I said trying not to make him feel worse.

"But still, if we waited for that damn snake none of this would be happening!"

"We don't know that! Come on we need to get to Uruguay as fast as possible!"

We hit the eastern coast of Argentina and then traveled north toward Uruguay. We crossed the Rio de la Plata and tried to find places to hide. We found a tiny forest and bunked under the trees waiting for the sun to set before running to Brazil.

As soon as we rested I immediately began searching for the futures of the family. I focused first on Jasper and myself and saw us safely making it to "meeting place Beta" – Forks, Washington. I focused on Carlisle and Esme and saw them finding a place to hide in Bolivia, and then arriving in Forks the day after us. Emmett and Rosalie were in Chile, and then traveling by swimming through the Pacific to Washington and arriving two days after Carlisle and Esme.

I had a hard time focusing on Edward and Bella, because Edward kept changing his mind about which direction to turn. When we split up they go south, but because the Hunters were coming from the south they went north. He kept debating to go northeast, but knew he would then run into Jasper and I; he then thought northwest but worried about running into Emmett and Rosalie, not knowing that they would be swimming. After thirty minutes, he made up his mind and chose northwest, stopping at the Peru/Ecuador border; they would arrive in Forks the same day as Carlisle and Esme.

Jasper and I sat as still and quietly as possible, listening for nearby sounds; but I was mostly searching for the future. Faint images passed through my mind, but nothing was making sense or coming into focus. And then the image of the human woman came back into my mind; I wanted to push it out, but I needed to know more about what happened. I replayed the scene over and over, noticing that they weren't really gathering any food, but pretending; they seemed scared as they did this. I then noticed their hands were tied.

"Criminals," I said in a whisper so quiet that a human wouldn't be able to hear it.

"Criminals?" replied Jasper looking at me.

"Those people we attacked, they weren't a family, and their hands were tied. They were bait; they each had a prison number on their clothing," I kept my gaze forward and as I began to feel sorrow, I then started to feel neutral about the situation; obviously Jasper wouldn't have me feel happy about killing people used as bait.

"Do you think the Hunters knew we were there?" he asked.

"No, I think we were there at the wrong time. How did I _miss_ this?" I brought my hands to my face and rubbed my fingers over my eyes.

"You know when you're thirsty, your power doesn't work so well, and with all of the blackouts it's even worse," said Jasper trying to comfort me.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"I just want you to see this isn't your fault! It is all of our faults!"

"So now you agree with me! You were trying to take all the blame earlier."

"That's because everyone was feeling guilty over eating humans, it was hard shaking away that feeling until now."

I nodded and both of us continued our constant alertness. When the sun began to settle we took off again heading northeast into Brazil, and by the time the sun began to rise again we were safely hiding in Mexico. I again searched the futures of the family and everything was still the same; except Emmett and Rosalie had taken a swimming break in Hawaii which I hadn't seen earlier.

Again Jasper and I waited out the morning sitting in silence, keeping watch on our hiding place. We were both relieved when night fell and we were running toward home again.

Forks is always the first back up meeting place, depending on where we are, when we are unable to make another meeting place before having to split up; Denali is the second and Chicago is the third. Carlisle always tells us where to meet when we have these unexpected split ups, since we cannot safely use cell phones to keep in contact; the Hunters can easily track the signal or overhear our conversations. It's been hard living without technology for several hundred years, but we have gotten by somehow.

We stopped again when we reached Utah; excitement now building since we were a night and day journey away from home. I started searching to see if it was possible to steal a car and make the journey easier; but I was unsuccessful, each path I saw the human reporting the car stolen and us getting pulled over.

"I can't take this!" when the last image of car stealing was the same as the others. "I want to get to Forks now!"

"Well, then search the future. Will we be seen running in the daylight?" asked Jasper trying to ease my sudden burst of anger.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and breathed out. I saw Jasper and I running through an empty destroyed city; the weathered sign of "Welcome to Washington!" flashed by; and then the house lost in the overgrowth of forest and covered in ivy.

"No!" I said happily.

"Then I'll race you!"

We both leapt to our feet and began the last part of our journey. We reached Forks by nightfall. The town was deserted; the paved roads cracked and broken. The driveway to our house was also overgrown but we knew where to go. When we saw the house the ivy that now surrounded the area completely over took the exterior of the house; I knew Esme would be heartbroken to see her favorite house in such a state.

The interior wasn't any better. The paint had faded, the glass broken, the furniture gone; of course that was because we moved out a year after Bella was transformed, and this was our first time back here; all the other times we had to split unexpected we were close to Denali. The stairs were completely rotted and if it wasn't for our ability to jump we wouldn't have been able to get to the other floors of the house, even though hardly any floor remained to stand on. It was amazing how after 300 years the house was still standing.

We bunkered down and I was excited knowing that we would all soon be reunited. I was happy to know that my visions weren't changing meaning none of the family was being hunted or caught by the Hunters; we were all safe – for now.

_**I hope you understand that yes they ran hundreds of miles in one day, and the impossiblity of it, but they are vampires after all! Would you rather have me drag out the traveling longer? I certainly wouldn't! We can say that before Utah they were "borrowing" cars ;) Anywho, please review and tell me your likes and dislikes; I'm open to all forms of reviews! **_

_**Stephenie Meyer is the owner of the Twilight world...I'm just playing around having some fun with the "future" of it ( but seriously no profit is or will ever be made from this)**_


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